Pi 4B assembly

Once all my components arrived, I quickly ripped open the box they were shipped in and began assembly. Honestly, it's so simple even a caveman could do it ™.
With the case (plastic) that came with my kit, I found it was not very sturdy. It will do OK for now, but it will be replaced with a better one later.
I found that you could NOT use the RTC that I purchased and mount the fan in the case that came with the kit due to the riser pins being so tall and the RTC itself extending into the area that the fan sat over the CPU.
I ended up bending the top pins on the RTC and then put it in place and attached the fan to those bent pins and cutting a small section of the top to place then fan on the outside blowing inward.

RPI-fan.jpg


I will be looking for a better plastic case that is taller and will allow the RTC AND a fan to be used inside at the same time. I do not want a metal case, as that limits the range of the WiFi.

To get the RTC to work (on my 4 B) with Astroberry server installed, I had to do the following:

Open a terminal and modify /boot/config.txt file using what you favorite editor such as vim.tiny or nano, add parameters as following picture:

Code:
# Uncomment some or all of these to enable the optional hardware interfaces
dtparam=i2c_arm=on
#dtparam=i2s=on
dtparam=spi=on


You can read /boot/overlays/README and find this info to add support for ds1307 I2C Real Time Clock device.

Code:
Name:   i2c-rtc
Info:   Adds support for a number of I2C Real Time Clock devices
Load:   dtoverlay=i2c-rtc,<param>=<val>
Params: abx80x                  Select one of the ABx80x family:
                                  AB0801, AB0803, AB0804, AB0805,
                                  AB1801, AB1803, AB1804, AB1805


Ensure that /boot/config.txt file includes these two parameters:

dtoverlay=i2c-rtc,ds1307
dtparam=i2c_arm=on

Your config.txt may have already had the dtparam=i2c_arm=on uncommented, mine did.

After that, please make sure you have disabled the "fake hwclock" which interferes with the 'real' hwclock

sudo apt-get -y remove fake-hwclock
sudo update-rc.d -f fake-hwclock remove

With the fake-hw clock off, you can start the original 'hardware clock' script.
Edit the script file /lib/udev/hwclock-set with nano or vim editor and comment out these three lines:


Bash:
if  [  -e  /run/systemd/system ] ;  then

      exit 0

fi

Your result should look like this:
Bash:
#if  [  -e  /run/systemd/system ] ; then
#    exit 0
#fi
if [  -e  /run/udev/hwclock-set ]; then
    exit 0
    fi
    
if  [  -f  /etc/default/rcS ] ; then
    . /etc/default/rcS
fi

Save the edited file and reboot your Raspberry Pi.





Once that was done, I shut down the Pi and unplugged from the ethernet cable and then powered back up. The date/time was correct.

I haver another case (HiFiBerry HighPi ) on hand that is taller to put the RPi 8GB that I'm waiting on to come in. I also have a different RTC to install in it that doesn't have the extensions of the GPIO outlets present. I plan on, if needed, obtaining a 3.3v fan and running it off a different set of GPIO pins. I will have to modify the case also as it should have enough room to mount the fan on the inside... but the top is solid so I will either need to drill numerous smaller holes in it or slots (I'm leaning towards holes).
1661162780272.png



NEXT: The Image battle begins